of the Bay of Bengal, 215 



large. Mouth small, completely inferior, the infraorbital 

 ridge being most distinct ; the maxilla reaches a short way 

 behind the vertical through the anterior border of the orbit. 

 Teeth in broad bands in both jaws, villiform in the lower, 

 cardiform in the upper. Barbel barely one fourth the length 

 of the eye. 



Gill-opening narrow, the gill-membranes being broadly 

 united ; synarthrosis of first branchial arch and gill-cover 

 very broad ; gill-laminae narrow ; oro-pharyngobranchial 

 cavity uniformly deeply pigmented. 



Body and head, except the jaws and the glosso-hyal region, 

 covered with spinigerous, imbricating, rather deciduous scales. 

 Those on the body are of uniform large size (y\ of an inch in 

 either diameter), imbricate in the anterior two thirds and 

 upper and lower fifth, and longitudinally fluted throughout 

 their free portion, the ridges between the grooves beai-ing 

 spinelets along the greater part of their length. On a scale 

 from the flank there are usually thirteen such ridges, of which 

 all but the outermost are spiny, the spinelets of the central 

 ridge being superior in size to all the others, and they 

 alone project beyond the edge of the scale. The lateral line 

 runs five rows of scales below the origin of the first dorsal 

 fin. 



First dorsal spine rudimentary ; the second prolonged into 

 a filament and almost as long as the head, its front edge 

 armed with about thirty decumbent spinelets ; the second 

 dorsal fin begins about a snout-length behind the first, its 

 rays being very inconspicuous. Pectoral short, its length 

 being less than half that of the head ; somewhat rounded. 

 Ventrals with the first ray prolonged into a filament, the 

 entire ray being nearly as long as the second dorsal ray. 



Stomach siphonal. Intestine long and much coiled ; nine 

 pyloric appendages. A large air-bladder. 



Colours in the fresh state : — Chocolate ; the jaws, gill- 

 covers, belly, and fins black. 



Total length 14^ inches. 



Hah. Vide Station 97. One specimen. 



Macrurus Hoskynii — named after the accomplished Super- 

 intendent of the Indian Marine Survey — appears to be allied to 

 Macrurus asper and to be one of the known bathybial Macruri. 

 It is the deepest-water species yet obtained in the Bay of 

 Bengal, and it seems significant that it is the largest. The 

 specimen described emitted a powerful and disagreeable musky 

 odour when in the fresh state. 



16* 



